LSU Football: ESPN hits Joe Burrow with the ultimate disrespect

Former LSU football quarterback Joe Burrow put together the greatest offensive season ever in 2019.

Burrow put up mind-blowing numbers against the best competition in college football.

When I think of the best college quarterback of the last 20 years, there’s no doubt that Burrow is at the top of my list.

I assume there are a lot of folks who share the same opinion as me about Burrow — it’s not exactly a hot take.

That’s why I was surprised to see ESPN hit Burrow this week with the ultimate disrespect.

Joe Burrow is not the best college quarterback of the 2000s according to ESPN.

According to WKYC, ESPN’s Bill Connelly has former Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield ranked as the best college quarterback of the 2000s (He has Burrow ranked No. 5).

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Mayfield certainly had a great career at Oklahoma (and a good freshman season at Texas Tech), but he never even played for a national championship.

Burrow only has two seasons to really judge (he didn’t play much at Ohio State before transferring to LSU), but those two seasons are pretty incredible.

In 2018, Burrow won the starting job at LSU and helped the Tigers win 10 games (including five wins against ranked teams). Burrow’s numbers in 2018 weren’t eye-popping, but they were quite good for a first-time starter in the SEC. The former Buckeye quarterback tossed for 2,894 yards, 16 touchdowns, and only five interceptions in 13 games in 2018.

Good, not great.

2019, however, was unlike anything we’ve seen before. And unlike anything we’ll probably ever see again.

Burrow was almost perfect as a quarterback in 2019. He had a 76 percent completion percentage (higher by six percent than Mayfield’s career-high), passed for 5,671 yards (over 1,000 more yards than Mayfield’s career-high), 60 touchdowns (17 more than Mayfield’s career-high), and only six interceptions. Oh, and the Tigers won a national championship in dominating fashion.

And Burrow did all of this against SEC competition (you know where teams play defense, unlike the Big 12).

The only quarterback I can see having a legit claim to being above Burrow is maybe Cam Newton (he pretty much single handily won Auburn a national championship in 2010), but I’d still give Burrow the edge.

I’m amazed at the disrespect Burrow continues to receive from various national media talking heads. He’s a kid that does everything the right way, plays the game the right way, and is a great teammate/leader.

The Cincinnati Bengals are lucky to have him as the face of their franchise. The AFC North is going to be fun for the next several seasons, watching Burrow, Mayfield, and Lamar Jackson compete multiple times a year.